Most travel chatter focuses on the “new norm.” Whether it is proof of vaccination, masking requirements, travel restrictions, or negative PCR tests are we actually seeing a new norm in terms of travel? Based on the number of airline passengers passing through Calgary...
On March 11, 2020 The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic. At that time more than 118,000 people had been infected over 110 countries and the virus was spreading rapidly across the globe. The impact of COVID-19 and its...
Albertans received the pleasant news that their deficit-plagued provincial government might bank a surplus for their concluding fiscal year, and could very well experience the same this year. The reason for this happy state of financial affairs is the elevated price...
Statistics Canada released their weekly Local Business Conditions Index (RTLBCI) covering the week ending April 11, 2022 and it shows that business conditions in Calgary and Edmonton are on the rise. From January 3, 2022 to April 11, 2022, Calgary’s RTLBCI has...
This past weekend, we learned of the tragic and unexpected passing of Pastor Leon Fontaine at 59 years of age. Leon was a gifted leader playing many roles both nationally and internationally. He was, with his wife Sally, the senior Pastors at Springs Church with...
Testimony before the Public Order Emergency Commission reveals the case for government invoking the Emergencies Act is either weak or very weak. The Prime Minister was, in fact, opposed to members of his cabinet or senior public health officials meeting with protest...
Modern monetary theory (MMT) now plays a role in your life whether you know it or not. The theory argues that a nation can never truly run out of money, and advocates quantitative easing (QE) to solve a nation’s debt and unemployment problems. Historically,...
Public debt is not a problem; it is the big idea behind modern monetary theory (MMT). The current economic crisis has allowed MMT to gain influence among the political class. Among the people who developed President Joe Biden’s economic program is Stephanie Kelton....
The vote by Canada’s Parliament to declare the actions of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the region of Xinjiang a genocide against the local Uyghur people is the latest in a series of events that highlight the growing discordance between Western and allied...
The COVID-19 crisis has brought back to the forefront the idea of a universal basic income (UBI) or guaranteed annual income (GAI). In response to the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 restrictions, the Canadian government has implemented the Canada Emergency...
Paraphrasing a remark by American philosopher Nicholas Murray Butler in 1931, John Newbern once said: “People can be divided into three groups: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened.” Each of those classes is...
The federal government is preparing a budget to be unleashed upon the public and the financial markets, sometime in March. Aside from being terrified at the prospect of a huge amount of debt being taken on, yet again, by our erstwhile servants on Parliament Hill,...
A dispute and court case from northern Ontario may help us understand ongoing tensions over the lobster fisheries on the East Coast. The war over Indigenous fishing rights has played out before in Canadian history. As we reflect on recent violence in Nova Scotia over...
Author Stephanie Kelton’s main point in The Deficit Myth is that federal deficits are not only harmless but highly desirable as devices to accelerate economic activity and resolve economic inequality. Government finance is not like other finance. Governments are...
If only Ottawa would put its full force and support behind the energy sector as it does other critical sectors in the economy. In early October, the prime minister announced that he would not back down from the latest American round of attacks on our softwood lumber...